Same thing.
How affordable is affordable? What is affordable for the CEO for a large company is different from what is affordable for the old woman picking cardboard boxes on the street.
I agree that certain things need state control - defense, utilities. Not medical; healthcare is an industry where costs are high like it or not, to put it blatantly it is unfair to force higher taxes onto everyone. Admittedly taking good care of your health doesn't guarantee a problem-free life healthwise, but a person who's 100% ok, paying for the person who smoked his way into lung cancer - you really think you want to be the former person?
You really think the nation's people, are ready to do that?
There are people who are not happy about immigration officers not smiling at them; if they are healthy and there is an announcement that taxes will go up, because the government has decided to subsidize medical costs for everyone alike (even though subsidies ARE in place, just do a short comparison between private and public hospitals, you'd see what I mean, do some reading up).. What do you think their reaction would be?
There are better ways of doing it - subsidies for the people who REALLY need it. A broad stroke to just reduce health costs across the board strikes me as ridiculous and a plausible breeding ground for further inefficiency and a good driving factor to reduce the population of healthcare workers.
When I was reading up on the problems in the NHS a while back, you should see the circus stories that Britain healthcare workers had to face because of the "free" healthcare. I think you'd agree with me that cutting costs across the board will lead to similar situations not unlike the scenes (e.g. Mercedes Benz driving people going to free clinics, rofl) of ugly Singaporeans that you see today.
Affordable to me means not paying more than 10% of my monthly salary to secure a medical plan that can pay all my medical costs if i am hit by a critical illness in a hospital like SGH, NUH. I think my expectation is not too ridiculous, am I?
Subsidies are in place, but subidies are getting lesser. I think we need to refocus our discussion, who are the target group that we are talking about. My focus is the lower and medium income group.
Healthcare industry is expensive because of the free market approach that the govt is adopting. Why are medicines cheaper than in Malaysia than in Singapore? Because there is no curb in Spore for the increase, no watchdog, the hospitals are forming cartels, because they know that Sporeans are relatively reacher and have no choice (unless they go Malaysia for drugs).
Your concern that the expensive medical industry will cause tax payer more money, well, those who are really poor do not pay taxes, and they cant afford the medical costs. Those who are medium income pay high taxes, but they end up paying higher medical costs too. Why? Because the medical industry is governed by market forces. The rich and wealthy will feel the pinch because they are paying more for their fellow citizens.
I believe that majority of the Singaporeans do not drive Mercedes, most of us are medium class who work hard to overcome the increasing living costs in Spore.
I dont think the govt has a good way to determine who REALLY deserve the help of the govt, or else they will implement Means Testing long ago.
As I mentioned looking at Salary alone is superficial. A better way will be co-payment by citizens. You pay for the same rate to get consultation, but if bills for the medicine, will depend on your income level, those who earn more will pay more.